How to track Santa on Christmas Eve: We’ve got all your details here
The question of the hour: Where is Santa now, and when will he be showing up on my rooftop?
Here’s how you can track it all thanks to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which keeps a careful eye on the skies above North America.
Beginning at 2:01 a.m. EST on Dec. 24, website visitors to noradsanta.org can peek at Santa’s North Pole prep via Santa Cams, then track his flight. Starting at 6 a.m. EST, kids can call 1-877-Hi-NORAD toll free or send an email to noradtrackssanta@outlook.com for updates and information.
Anytime on Dec. 24, tech savvy kids can ask Amazon’s Alexa for Santa’s location, and OnStar subscribers can press the button in their vehicles to get the latest location of Rudolph and the team.
Official NORAD Tracks Santa apps are also available for free in the Apple and Google Play stores for families who want to countdown to Christmas and get updates on the big sleigh ride in the sky.
Throughout the month of December, the NORAD Santa website features a free, interactive Santa’s Village (available in eight languages) where kids can play games, watch movies and videos, listen to holiday music, and see the seconds tick down (oh so slowly) to Christmas Eve.
Families can also follow NORAD Tracks Santa on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram all December long for seasonal fun and a little bit of holiday magic.
Now, some NORAD history:
Long before Google Earth and Find My iPhone, there was NORAD Tracks Santa, the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s spirited response to helping kids keep tabs on the whereabouts of Old Saint Nick.
Operated entirely by NORAD volunteers and funded through the support of corporate licensees, the program began in 1955 when a Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement misprinted the telephone number for kids to call Santa. Instead of reaching Father Christmas, it was Col. Harry Shoup, director of NORAD operations, who picked up the phone. The colonel decided to lend an assist by checking radar and tracking Santa’s path as he made his way south from the North Pole. Kids who phoned in were thrilled to receive live updates on Santa’s location — and NORAD has been giving Santa a hand ever since.
Sixty-two years later, on Christmas Eve the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations Center at the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., is staffed by more than 1,500 volunteers who field in excess of 150,000 phone calls, 2,800 emails and 3,000 OnStar requests from kids around the world.
Bonnie McCarthy contributes to the Los Angeles Times as a home and lifestyle design writer. She enjoys scouting for directional trends and reporting on what’s new and next. Follow her on Twitter @ThsAmericanHome
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